The stocks of public companies trade heavily in the minutes after a quarterly earnings announcement. It's unusual for trading to skyrocket before the earnings hit the wire.

That's what happened at Portland-based Columbia Sportswear Co. on Thursday.

The company was scheduled to release earnings at 1 p.m. in Portland. At 10:49 a.m., the company's stock shot up from $62.75 (NASDAQ: COLM) to more than $65.

The company contacted Nasdaq officials. Trading halted at 12:42 p.m., 18 minutes before trading stopped for the day.

"We contacted Nasdaq, shared our concerns and in cooperation with them agreed to place a short halt on the stock until we could move the earnings across the wire," said Ron Parham, Columbia's head of investor relations. "Once we had the stock halted we worked to get (earnings) out as quickly as possible."

The earnings release went out at 12:50 p.m., 10 minutes earlier than originally planned.

It's possible the reason for the pre-earnings spike will never be known. While the numbers could have leaked from one of the many hands — both inside and outside the company — that come in contact with the earnings release, it's also possible a computer algorithm picked up a shift in a variable. The majority of trades on Wall Street are executed by complex computer programs.

It's also possible an investor made a big bet on Columbia based on a hunch.